Specifically, a precious 5 year old little girl, named Maggie, who is battling cancer.
Wilms tumor, to be exact.

I graduated high school with Maggie's mom, Megan, and while I haven't seen her in a while
I still keep up with her on Facebook, and that's how I learned about everything that is going on with her.

You will read more about this below, but Maggie went through multiple surgeries (some lasting up to 13 hours), chemotherapy, and radiation treatments this past year to treat the cancer that was found on her kidney. It was a mass that was 7 inches in all directions.

Within the past couple of weeks, the family just found out that her cancer has spread to her lungs.{I've received full permission from Megan to share these pictures/her story}

After texting back and forth with Erin, I've come to you guys to ask for a favor (to some of you, a second favor)
and to read Maggie's story I'm about to share with you.

You may have seen Erin's recent posts where she spoke of a little boy, named Isaac,
who lives in her town and is also battling cancer.
I was so inspired by all of YOU who reached out to help him and his family.

I was blown away, but to be perfectly honest?

I was also sad that I hadn't thought about using my voice on here to help Maggie.

If we can help one boy and his family through this wonderful blogging community, could I also help Maggie and her family?

Well, I'm determined to try and I hope you can join me.

As most of you know by know, cancer has been in and out of my life for most of my life, so of course it really hits home to me when I see other families struggling. Instead of just sitting around and feeling sad when I read about Maggie, I can actually help by using this little blog of mine where most of the time I talk about little, not so important topics and things.

It's time to use my voice for something really important.

Here is a brief story, which was taken from her families website, about Maggie's battle:

"In March, the doctors found a large mass on my left kidney. They said it looked like a cancerous tumor called Wilm's. I was admitted into the hospital. They then took a biopsy, which confirmed that it was Wilm's, but during the biopsy my tumor began to bleed into itself. We ended up in a ten hour emergency surgery where they began physically going into my tummy to stop the bleeding but they were unable to find the source of the blood. They then sent me to a intervention radiologist who went through the artery in my leg to get to the tumor and found the source and slowed the bleeding level to a controllable level. By this point the tumor was about 7 inches in all directions taking up my entire left abdomen but we were happy because had they not slowed the bleeding they said that I would have died and they said that they were looking for a “needle in a hay stack”... we know that God showed up! Because of the rapid growth in my stomach during the bleeding they were unable to close my tummy so they put a wound vac over my opening and it kept my tummy closed until they removed it during my next major surgery in July.

They also learned that the tumor grew up from the IVC (major vein going into the heart) and into the top right chamber of the heart. This created a situation where the doctors felt that it was unsafe to immediately remove my tumor until we used chemo to shrink it. From my original day in the ER, I ended up staying in the hospital for almost six weeks straight before getting to go home. After I went home, we came to the hospital two or three times every week for different procedures and treatments. I also had several times when I was back inpatient. They have now done ten weeks of chemo followed by a three week rest for surgery.

Surgery was on July 11th and they removed my left side of my kidney (my kidney we also learned was a “horseshoe kidney” which means that I had one large kidney) then they opened my chest up and put me on a by-pass machine while they removed the tumor from my IVC and then reconstructed my vein. Surgery went as scheduled for the most part and took almost 13 hours. I am now out of the hospital on a regular basis and just go in for visits every now and then. My last chemo was in October!

As of November 21st, they did some more scans since my last chemo and found that the Wilms has progressed to my lungs so they will be doing surgery to remove some of the tumors and then begin an aggressive chemo and radiation plan to begin immediately."

You can read the full story and see pictures on Maggie's website:

www.princessmaggie.com.

As I'm writing this and sharing with you,

Maggie only has a couple days left with her family out of the hospital before she begins a new round of chemotherapy.

Today, I'm nervously reaching out to the blogging community and asking for a $5 donation
(the tool won't allow any less, otherwise I'd ask for less)
in hopes that I can hand deliver a check to the Lyon family for Christmas.

The Lyon family have 3 children total, and to think of how hard (mentally, physically, and financially)
this has to be on Megan, her husband, her other 2 children, and especially Princess Maggie, makes me cry.

My promise to you, and my personal plan, is to hand deliver the money to Megan and her family, and the money will be used towards medical costs and bills.

I do not know what position the Lyon family are in financially,

but I DO know how expensive medical bills are and I can't even begin to imagine.

Who knows, this may help her children get Christmas presents this year.

I'm just hoping to ease some of their troubles this Christmas and hope you will join me.

If you can't afford $5 right now, please know that I understand that, too.

Prayers are always, ALWAYS, appreciated.

Let's do this.

Let's help Princess Maggie and her family.

This is exactly what this time of year is all about.
Update: Brinkley, the owner of the adorable Babygirl Brown Originals will donate 25% of her shops proceeds from now to December 10th to Princess Maggie!
Shop here and you can help this family as well.
Thank you Brinkley!

*If you would like to help more: please share this with your friends and family, on your blog, on facebook, anything.

UPDATE: My goal of $1,000 has been raised!! All thanks to each and every single one of you!I have been moved to tears. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!I will update more once I deliver the money to the family. :)

Good for you!!! God bless this little girl and her family! I will donate and share this post on my FB page in hopes others will donate too.i I hope more of your readers will do the same. : ) Every little bit helps, prayers included!

You are right, this is what the holiday's are all about. Helping others out. You are too sweet to post this and go about setting up the donation, I donated and I hope that we can all help brighten up their holiday!

Thanks for sharing this story, Katie- cancer (childhood cancer, specifically) is something that hits close to home for me as well. Thank you for being so awesome and for helping this family out in their time of need, this world could use more people like you!

[This is also my first official comment on your blog, so consider this my "coming out of the shadows post" :)]

I just donated $5...and not because I want to toot my horn...because I wanted anyone to read this that donating $5 means not eating out tonight or having one less drink at happy hour. It's not much and we can ALL make a difference if we come together!

Thank you for sharing Maggie's story. I shared your post on an fb page that my family started recently in honor of a cousin that would go out of his way to help anyone. Thanks for being one of those people willing to go above and beyond to help others.

OMG, I'm rushing out to work this am, but I am already tearing up, just seeing the photos. Will definitely come back to read the entire story and do what I can to help! :( Thoughts and prayers are being sent.

i'm usually just a reader and not a commenter, however this post got me. I donated and i'll be sending prayers for this sweet little one. Although you and i do not know each other, but you are doing such a great thing!!!!!!

One less latte or one less item in my cart at Target is such a MINUSCULE "sacrifice" if it means brightening sweet Maggie's day. Thanks for sharing her story; I cannot imagine my own little girl facing such a grown up battle. Maggie is in an inspiration! Many prayers for her and her family as they continue this journey.

Wow, I cannot even imagine! How heartbreaking. Thank you for using your platform to share this story and allowing your readers the privilege of helping this family. I just donated and my thoughts and prayers are with Maggie and the family.

Thanks for sharing this Katie, I couldn't figure out how to increase from $5 but I guess every bit will help. My cousin had wilms tumors as a baby, so sending love and prayers to the Maggie and her family! What a beautiful little girl!

Alexandra, there should be a drop down box to choose a different amount to donate. Is it not working? Please let me know if it's not or if anyone else has this issue! Thank you for the donation, it's truly appreciated!

Such an absolute angel! So happy I could donate and help this family out! This is the reason for the season and thank you for sharing this story with us. Maggie is a doll and I will be praying for her and her family that she beats this terrible disease.

You're an angel for doing this! This made my day helping out this little peanut :)

What a beautiful, precious little girl! I can't imagine what she and her family are going through, and I love that you shared their story Katie! This is truly what this season is all about in my opinion, giving to those in need. I will be keeping this family in my thoughts <3

This just breaks my heart!! I took a break from studying for my college finals and decided to check out your blog. This made me burst into tears. I will be praying real hard for a miracle! No one, let alone a child, should have to live with this. I donated and I hope that helps make a difference.

Just sent in my donation. My heart breaks for this precious angel....all of these sweet babies with this nasty disease...why, Lord, why? Thank you for sharing and I plan to add this blog post in my post tomorrow. xoxo

I am so moved by this story!!! I donated, shared your post on both of my facebook pages, and added it to my Blog. I will be following along and praying for this dear family and their precious little girl! Thank you for sharing this!!

What a sweet gift you are giving to this family! I attempted to donate yesterday afternoon and the button wasn't working. It looks like it might be removed at this point- is there still an option to contribute? I was moved to tears by Miss Maggie's story and wish her and her family some peace this holiday season. Please let me know if there is still a way to donate, I'd love to help this sweet little angel! Caitlin

Hi Caitlin! Thank you. Yes, I actually took it down because we reached the goal and I have truly appreciated what everyone has done. If you would still like to donate, you can email me or just spreading the word for prayers would be wonderful!! Thank you!

Hi Katie, I was sent here by Shanna's blog & was so moved by your raising of your voice to help Maggie :) I couldn't find where to donate...til I re-read the post, cried again & found the website :) I made a donation there & will keep Maggie & her family in my prayers. I look forward to following you :)

Praying for that sweet little girl and her family. We know three different families who have lost children to cancer - and more who have children who are cancer survivors. It's one of those things that I can't understand. Thank you for using your voice to helping this sweet little princess. We'l be praying for her.